Science: Stuffed birds reveal past mercury levels

The skins and feathers of birds obtained from natural history collections can provide an historical record of changing levels of mercury pollution, say researchers in Britain. They have studied puffins stuffed by Victorian taxidermists, and found that their feathers carried only half the amount of mercury as the feathers of similar birds today (Journal of Applied Ecology, vol 29, p 79).

David Thompson, Bob Furness and Paul Walsh of the University of Glasgow have perfected a way of analysing levels of organic mercury in a sample of just three or four feathers. These can be removed from living sea birds without harming them.

Thompson's team persuaded the reluctant curators of museums across Britain to let them cut similar samples from a few preserved specimens. Some of the birds had been stuffed in the 1830s, but most came from the 1870s and 1880s.

'The Victorian bonanza of skin collecting turns out ...

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